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Friday, August 19, 2016

BOOK REVIEW | THE SWIMMING POOL

It's Summer when Elm Hill lido opens, having stood empty for
years. For Natalie Steele - a wife, mother, teacher - it offers freedom from
the tightly controlled routines of work and family. Especially when it leads
her to Lara Channing, a charismatic former actress with a lavish bohemian
lifestyle, who seems all too happy to invite Natalie into her elite circle.

Soon Natalie is
spending long days at the pool, socialising with new friends and basking in a
popularity she didn't know she'd been missing. Real lift, and the person she
used to be, beings to feel very far away.

But is such a
change in fortunes too good to be true? Why are dark memories of a summer long
ago now threatening to surface? And, without realising, could Natalie have been
swept dangerously out of her depth?

Typically I read your average length book during my week long
commute. If I really love the book it’ll be a matter of days as I not only
reach for the book on the train but dip in and out at home or binge the last
few chapters as I seek to know how the story will end. The Swimming Pool byLouise Candlish took me two weeks to read which will tell you very simply it
was not for me.

I had high hopes for this ‘gripping’ tale wanting a return to
darker tale but quite frankly I was utterly bored, disappointed and I’m baffled
at what I have missed. Whenever I do not enjoy a book I turn to the more
positive book reviews to try and see if it’s simply me that is missing
something but I am at a loss.

The opening prologue sets a scene of sorts that you know something
has gone amiss and have a slight intrigue wondering who was ‘it’ but after that
it just felt like a never ending and boring attempt at dropping hints and
attempting to create tension. In fact I like many of the other negative
reviewers I’ve found skim read a lot of this book. As I’ve said it took me
twice as long to read this as any other book as I just didn’t have enough
interest to want to pick up and turn the page instead of refreshing my Twitter
feed for the hundredth time.

Without providing spoilers the book does have an interesting
attempt at showing how even adults can be swept along with wanting to be
friends with the ‘cool kids’ and how even as an adult you have moments of
madness in which you let your usual moral standards slip.

I didn’t find any of the characters particularly likeable and
rather two dimensional if I’m honest. They were to me the generic versions of
their type and in fact the ‘dark sides’ people refer to and lead to chills felt
rather tame to me. I couldn’t relate in anyway or have any investment in what
was happening, I could understand to a point but it felt so obvious how the
story was told that it was as if I’d heard it all before.

The one saving grace for me and was almost worth reading in its
entirety was there was a nugget of the story which had another breadcrumb
dropped on the last few pages which had an eyebrow raised and provided
something to go ‘aha so…’ and allow for my own conclusions.